Showing posts with label blue highway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blue highway. Show all posts

Thursday, September 8, 2011

One Month of Denim - Day 8


Our neighbouring country, Sweden, seem to be more into denim, than we are in Denmark. That is unfortunately a fact. They have Indigofera, Nudie, Acne Jeans, Pace and Denim Demon for instance. Personally I don't find any of them too interesting, but they are all putting out denim related goods and jeans. What I do however find very interesting is the Blue Highway project by the two Luhanko brothers, Hampus and Douglas.

I followed their blog from the very beginning and tried to recommend interesting jeans on eBay to them because that was their main purpose to begin with. They collected vintage denim and they showed their finds on the blog. This created a wonderful gallery of vintage denim artifacts from the three big ones and from smaller, lesser-known brands.
A couple of years later they started making jeans, and things got even more exciting. Later on we have followed them on trips to America (with Michael Harris), when their jeans went on a world tour, how their jeans evolved both in quality and how they faded and how their range of products has been getting bigger with more products and collaborations. The highlight so far has been the joint venture with a shop called Sivletto, when they opened a collaborative store called Unionville in Stockholm. This store carries some of the most interesting work wear and denim related goods from Lofgren, Mister Freedom and Ironheart - to mention a few - and it also has a workspace on the shop floor. It all looks very interesting and you get the feeling that they really care about what they do.
In my opinion they could go from strength to strength. If they get the right machinery and a steady source of great denim, they could be competing with some of the very best Japanese makers. 

You can see examples on their denim - on Denim Archive here, but I urge you to follow them on their blog, on Unionville and on Facebook.
READ MORE - One Month of Denim - Day 8

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Mr Mudd and Mr Gold

Before you start reading, you should probably bookmark this shop under a new folder called "people doing it right!" I will continuously be adding more shops to that list, as we get on.


I sometimes find myself secretly wanting to be Swedish - only in brief moments though, but it does happen. It happens when I listen to the music of Håkan Hellström of whom I have very fond memories from my adolescent and it reminds me of my best friend. Secondly the Swedes seem way more into denim on a geeky level in Sweden - Just check out the brothers Luhanko of Blue Highway and now Unionville. And as I was writing this, the great tannery Tärnsjö came to mind. Tärnsjö makes vegetable tanned leather of a rather good quality. Hopefully I'll make a pilgrimage to Tärnsjö real soon and I'll bring some leather home.


What made me commence this rant, was the shop Mr Mudd and Mr Gold. It is just perfect. What makes it perfect could be the fact that it sells hard-to-get Japan-only products, it could also be the nice assortment of vintage garments, it could also be the wide variety of knives or it could be the rather silly, but just right items like the Messograf pen (which isn't a really good pen, but it is one of the most original and fun pens ever made).
I guess you just have to say that the guys behind Mr Mudd and Mr Gold are great at creating and curating a mix of interesting, beautiful, well-made, rugged and just plain good objects.


Hopefully some Danish shops will take notice and even learn from our neighbours.
READ MORE - Mr Mudd and Mr Gold